Irreverence and our warped view of God. Part 2

...Continued from last post here.

Irreverence and our warped view of God. 

Oftentimes, we forget from where God picked us up. There are sinners today who will become saints tomorrow, whether we like it or not. All these details are things hidden from us as humans but because we want to have our way by all means, we throw prayers to the god we can control to do our bidding.

It is not only in our prayers that our irreverence shows, it also shows in our preaching. Many of us no longer lead people to faith in Christ; we lead them to faith in ourselves. We no longer point men to Christ, we point them to ourselves. When we speak, we do not speak as servants and oracles of God, we speak as gods. We no longer lead men to worship God, we lead them to worship us and other men. We make all kinds of claims and erroneously quote Scriptures out of context to buttress what we are saying. However, when we do all these, it only shows our level of irreverence.

It equally shows in our lifestyles. We just roll with the worldly tide and live lives that have no checks and balances and still think that it does not matter. We live as though we are the ones that will be on the judgment seat on the last day and not God. We behave as if we are the ones that set God’s judgment standard. We do whatever we want to do with all liberty, without any recourse to God and His word and do not care. People cheat others and exploit only to bring their tithes to church with the mindset that they are doing God good – He needs money so they give Him the money He needs. We dupe people in business, lose all integrity and it does not bother us. In our families, work and business places, we hurt people and do not have good testimonies before people and we seem to wear the seal, “whether you like it or not, I’m born again”. Our attitude is as if there is no day of reckoning.

The truth is that we create the image of the kind of god we want to serve and worship, and set out with the kind of lifestyle we expect him to accept. We pray to him the way we want and tell him what we want – a god that has no reverence. We indeed preach about the god we have created and we rightly live as those who dictate to him what happens. The truth also is that this god we created in our minds and psyche must be an idol and not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So, are you serving the God of Israel or are you serving an idol you have created?

If you want to serve the Living God, let His fear show in all you do; “as he said through his holy prophets of long ago,…to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.”  Luke 1:70-75 NIV. Serve Him all your day. God bless.

Irreverence and our warped view of God. Part 1

Irreverence and our warped view of God. 

Over emphasizing an attribute of God at the expense of His other attributes does not make God better. The bible never uses a comparative word on God’s attributes. They are absolute and definite. For example, singing about God’s goodness and confessing that He is love cannot make God good or better. It cannot make God to love more. He is good and He is love essentially. We cannot add anything to God neither can we subtract from who He is. When we make confessions and sing certain songs, we help and edify ourselves and not God, no matter what we do. He rejoices in our fellowship not because He has a need; not because we have made the fellowship meeting sweet or decorated the place to look nice but solely because He has chosen to dwell in the praises of His people. Fellowship is very important to God. The gathering of His people is a special convocation. This is because it is in such a fellowship that God dwells.

Having said that, it is good for us to note that there is nothing we do in this life that is doing God a favour. Many of us live as if we and God are in a game of chess. Doing what we ought to do is seen as if we are only being kind to Him, as if without us He cannot be God. We live and talk as if God is God only at our mercy; as if we and God come with our bargaining chips and trade on what happens in our lives and the lives of others; that is, God places His cards on the table while we come with our own too. In fact, we even behave as the side that has the upper hand. God must bow to our pressure and do what we want Him to do for Him to remain God.

It shows in our prayers. Do we really pray? What is prayer? When we pray to God, what do we tell Him? Do we speak like children in the presence of their Father and King or do we speak like kings on our thrones who demands God to do whatever we want Him to do? Do we show reverence in our hearts, bringing our helplessness, hopelessness, limitations, needs, challenges, uncertainties, fallibility and incompleteness to Him who is enough for us and without whom we are nothing? What is prayer and how do we pray? Do we just come and throw words at Him, exercise ourselves and sweat and come out with the feeling that we have prayed? Is that really prayer? A brother once was coordinating a prayer session and asked the people to repeat after him, “my father, my fire…”. I later asked him, “why are you saying ‘my father my fire’? Where did you learn that from? What do you really mean?” He couldn’t proffer any answer. I discovered that because he shouts and encourages the people to shout in their prayers under an emotionally charged atmosphere, he feels good and satisfied that he has led a very hot prayer session. We feel good but do not care how God feels. What we easily forget is that our declarations in prayers are never towards God but towards Satan and his cohorts, our lives, circumstances.

You know, the environment many of us come from is still affecting us. We view God the same way a native doctor views his god, because of our idolatrous backgrounds. A native doctor can use his god or ask him to do good or to do bad depending on his mood and what he wants. Oftentimes, that is our approach to God when we come to the place of prayer. We have a God we use and not a God we fear and worship. We have a God we send on errands, who serves our interests and not a God we serve and who is sovereign. We come to Him with our shoulders raised high instead of bowing in humility. 

He has promised to answer our prayers not at the expense of anything. He answers our prayers because He has promised to do so and delights in our fellowship. We cannot even explain that but He has chosen to relate to us that way because He loves us. There are no specific words that impress God. There are no holy places anymore, where you must go or face for Him to answer. There are no postures that give you an express ticket to His presence. That is why it is not in our eloquence or crafty use of words that make Him answer.  I have seen God answer prayers even though the person praying used bad English. Our motives, intentions, hidden agendas and life follow our prayers, hence God looks beyond our good and nice and correct English words.

Now, are we really praying when we ask God to kill people? This high hand with which some of us come to God only shows our pride, ego, bitterness and unforgiveness. We curse in prayer and send out arrows to harm people in prayers and still think that we are fellowshipping with God. We see ourselves as very special to the extent that we can use God to achieve whatever we want to achieve. We think that we can move God to show one of His attributes over the others just because of us. Unfortunately for us, that is impossible. It is having an incorrect view of God. For example, God cannot, because of His children, be unjust to the unbelievers.  Furthermore, some people we see today as unbelievers are tomorrow’s saints...

Continue to read!

Obeying God in difficult times

Every believer needs to take the decision now and resolve to remain obedient to God even in difficult times.

Oftentimes, I have asked myself whether there are times when obedience to God is impossible. I have wondered how those that find themselves in situations of war and chaos manage to obey God and keep clean. I have equally wondered how believers manage to obey God in situations where they are alone, in situations where everybody around them is comfortable in unrighteousness and yet, the saint has the imperative of obedience. Does obedience to God often hurt?

A well-known believer was recently screened by the Nigerian Senate for a ministerial position and he said during the session that the political landscape of the nation is littered with banana peels and that he’s got to thread very carefully. In situations where obeying God means swimming against the tide and walking literary on banana peels, what will the believer do?

First, we have to be aware of not only the joys of living in obedience, but also the challenges it poses to us because we live in a world that is rebellious to God and His ways. We have to internalize this fact that Obedience to God does not always make us popular. It does not always make us look humanly sensible. Obeying God often hurts us temporarily. It often interrupts our ambitions and plans, makes us look like an enigma because most family members and friends may fail to understand us and it often attracts sufferings. Sometimes, a believer has to walk alone for a while. Now, does God vindicate His people? YES, He does! Sometimes, He does it immediately in the believer’s lifetime. Other times, He does it when the believer is no more. Sometimes, He vindicates and brings explanations to a watching audience while at other times He gives His reasons for His demand upon His own to the next generation. It is also very important to note that there are sometimes understanding is kept until when we get to heaven.

During the Kidnapping Crisis in the Southern Nigeria, I heard a sad story of a pastor’s family that the kidnappers visited. They wanted to carry the pastor himself but he was not around. They then asked the first son to sleep with their mother, but he refused and was shot. When they asked the second son to sleep with their mother, he hesitated but was persuaded by their mother, the pastor’s wife. He slept with her and they still carried her away. Unfortunately, the boy committed suicide the next morning.

It is true that this is a very extreme case, and we pray that God never allows us to be pushed to the wall like this. However like i have already noted, every believer needs to take the decision now, what to do in difficult times, for it when we resolve this way that grace and help are released. We need to take the oath of loyalty and allegiance to our Lord, to obey Him both in good and bad times. What will you do when obeying God means to put your life on the line? What will you do when obeying God will bring about some hurts, not just to you but also to those around you, who you love? What will you do when obeying God will make you look foolish? You look for explanations to give but cannot find and no one understands you? What will you do when to obey God means to suffer loss?

I am well aware of the fact that this is not an easy terrain. Some people may term people like us alarmists and believers that always look at the negative and bad side of everything about Christianity. For example, some time ago, I shared about the coming persecution that might come upon the church, and a brother asked me to remove his name from the Evergreen Word of Life Mailing List without any explanations. I equally believe in the goodness of God. My problem with those that see only the good things that come with salvation is that they do not want to accept the lordship and sovereignty of Christ. 

When God moves on to implement His sovereign plans, will our response be that of obedience and submission to His eternal will or will it be that of rebellion? Who are we to question God in the things He allows and not allow in His eternal will which He mapped out before the world began? I agree that some things that happen also are caused because of the Fall of Man and the presence of sin. However, will everything always work for our pleasure or God’s pleasure? When God’s pleasure clashes with our own pleasures, are we ready to submit and obey?

The more I read the Bible the more I see saints that denied themselves, the more I see believers that obeyed God even when the times were very dangerous. As I read stories of men who God used, I see men who were totally sold out to Him and damned the views, values and opinions of the world around them. The more I read the Bible, the more I see men that obedience to God landed them into 'trouble'; men that obedience to God was very costly both to them and those around them. It cost them cherished relationships, material things, positions and comforts of this life. For some of them, they came out like Joseph in Egypt, Daniel, Shedrach, Mishach, and Abednego in Babylon, and received deliverance and were promoted in life. Meanwhile for others like Isaiah, Jeremiah, many old prophets, James the brother of John and others listed in the later part of Hebrews 11, obedience to God meant suffering and death.

We need to look at our lives and those around us. Are we ready to be all that God wants us to be? Are we ready to obey God even if it hurts? Are we ready to remain loyal to Him till the end?

I am not a hero yet. As I pray for others, I equally pray for myself. God has only laid a burden on my heart to challenge His people. Life is a test. One of these days, your loyalty will be tested. One of these days your obedience will be tested. For some of you reading this piece, you are already in the middle of your test and you do not know what to do. Please make sure you pass the test. Make sure you obey God at the end of the day. May grace and help not be far from us in difficult times. But your victory in tomorrow’s test starts with today’s decisions. Start taking steps to obey God in little things today. God bless you.

Obedience to God has no alternatives

Obedience to God has no alternatives

We are close to the end of the month of January. Many of us have made resolutions and taken further steps to ‘order’ how we want the year to go for us. Most churches had one week of fasting and prayers. Others took fourteen days, twenty one days and so on while others are yet to round off because they want to reach the last day of the month. In fact, I once heard a brother in one of the churches, while leading in a prayer session, said that he would continue in fasting till the end of the first one hundred days of the New Year. Let us assume that the reasons and motives behind these efforts are correct, the activities are good spiritual exercises that will help one to focus and develop his spiritual strength.

However, there is a deception I have a burden to address here and that is, the lie of believing that our fasting and prayers can buy us favours from God and make Him ignore His demand for total obedience and trust in Him which is the platform for good success. Throughout the Scriptures, you cannot clearly see any promise of God that is hinged on fasting. On the contrary, the Bible is filled with promises of good rewards when we give heed and do what is commanded. We also see the curses that follow rebellion when we refuse to listen to God’s word.

As I read Isaiah 58, I really wondered why God asked the prophet to raise his voice like a trumpet and shout His word aloud to His people. He said that “day after day they seek me out. They seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them” Vs 2. NIV.

Is this not our condition today? We run around doing all kinds of prayers asking God to avenge us of our enemies and prosper us. We look like those who are seeking God but our hearts are very far away from Him. We are not willing to do what His word says. You know, God’s people have a way of developing spiritual lethargy and hearing problems, especially the older we become in church. Hence God told the prophet, ‘shout it aloud with your voice like that of a trumpet. These people fast and seek me day after day as if they really want to know me. But they are stuck in their own ways. They continue in their rebellion and expect me to come down and answer them. No! They cannot be heard from on high’. Observe carefully that God did not condemn their efforts of fasting, but He frowns at their rebellion. Obedience has no alternatives.

There are people that do not have the intention to change their ways. They want God to do something for them but they ignore His word. Their attitude demands that it is God who should shift grounds and change His mind and not them. What they do not understand is that you cannot be living a disobedient life and enjoy blessings at the same time. You cannot sleep on the laps of Delilah and wake up in the bosom of Abraham. The two do not go together. Obedience to God is the key to a life of blessing.

King Solomon leant many lessons late while he was alive. In his old age, when he had lost it all, the little recovery he had just before he died, he concluded, “After all this, there is only one thing to say: Have reverence for God, and obey his commands, because this is all that we were created for.” Eccl 12:13-14 GNT.

King Solomon had blown everything before he came to this conclusion towards the end of his life. Just one thing to say, ‘fear God and obey Him, this is all that we were created for’. You were not created to live for yourself or someone else but to live for God. What God has asked you to do is more important than what you want to do for Him, no matter how ‘spiritual’ and noble. Doing what He tells you to do is more important than a sacrifice of a thousand rams. Taking time to note what brings God glory, what makes Him smile, and doing it attracts favour and blessings than fasting in the midst of a lifestyle that is contrary to Scriptures. Living a lifestyle that violates God’s word cannot bring us to a life of blessedness. In fasting we humble ourselves. It builds our spirit in our walk with Him but it cannot replace an obedient spirit. Please do not be deceived.

Like the prophet, I am shouting on top of my voice to all that care to listen, ‘obedience to God has not alternatives’. Decide to obey God this year in all that you know are His will. Walk with Him and you will testify at the end. Is somebody hearing me? God bless you.

Pastor Nadarkhani re-arrested on Christmas Day

Many of you prayed for the release of Brother Yousef Nadarkhani and as God would have it, he was released on bail September 8, 2012. We shared the joy here.

He has been re-arrested on Christmas Day and taken back to prison to serve the remaining 45 days of a three-year sentence for evangelizing Moslems. Over the years, the Iranian Government has charged him with many things including apostasy, banditry and extortion, and later acquitted him of all the charges. Remember his wife was once arrested in 2010 in their bid to put pressure on him to recant his faith but was later released.

Foxnews reports that since Nadarkhani's release, his attorney, Mohammed Ali Dadkhan has been imprisoned and remains in Iran's notoriously brutal Evin Prison where his health is rapidly deteriorating and is being denied proper dental care, according to his family. He has been incarcerated for advocating Nadarkhani's case and other human rights cases.

It's like the Iranian Government is just determined to hurt Brother Yousef. Please pray for him and his family that the plans of their persecutors shall not prosper.  Also, pray that the Iranian government does not decide to bring additional charges against him and keep him in prison for additional time.

For more information, please go here.

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year 2013!

We want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year as the year 2012 draws to an end. 

As I was listening to Celine Dion's song here on "So this is Christmas", I remembered some Christians I read about this morning and prayed for, who are being persecuted as we speak. Some are still in prison and do not know when they will be freed. Example is our brother Behnam, an Iranian Pastor, who has been in Iranian prison since May 2011. We had shared his story before, asking brethren to pray for him. The concern now is that his health has deteriorated and he is denied medical treatment. However, if you exercise patience and read his recent Christmas Letter from prison, you will see resilience and faith expressed in the midst of difficult circumstances. Continue to pray for him.

In Indonesia, a church of about 600 members, pastored by the Rev Palti Panjaitan, Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) Filadelfia in Bekasi, has been worshiping on the streets because the authorities refused them using their church building. This church is not alone, the GKI Yasmin congregation in Bogor also faces a similar challenge. In Uzbekistan, we thank God that the eviction verdict placed on Pastor Vyacheslav Goncharenko  and his church, the New Life Church was evoked just a few days ago. They can for now continue to use their property for worship services. 

Finally, in Somalia, Mursal Isse Siad, 55 was recently shot and killed because he repented and left Islam. Time will not permit us to share all the stories of the persecuted church who serve God today at the risk of their freedom, comfort and even their lives.

Why do we share these stories? The reason is simple: we are to share the burden of those brethren around the world who are suffering for their faith. We do not share them so as to make us afraid or discourage us. No! We want to see how we can stir ourselves up unto obeying the injunction: "Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering." Heb 13:3 NIV. 

The issue is that as you celebrate this Christmas, remember that there are many who are depending on your prayers to survive and live. Their crime is nothing but the fact that they confess Christ. One said “The best helping hand you can give us is to have praying hands”. 

One of these days, we will all meet  together in heaven with these brethren. Play your part in love.

Pray!...pray!!...pray!!!. 

Once again, Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year 2013!

Whatever happened to our ‘bowels of mercy’!

Whatever happened to our ‘bowels of mercy’!

 “But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 1 John 3:17 KJV.

“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering”  Col 3:12 KJV.

Greater part of the year, 2012 has seen a lot of Christians being attacked, killed, dispossessed and displaced especially in the Northern Nigeria. The persecutions have not abated as on the 1^st October, about 30 Christian students were murdered at Federal Polytechnic, Mubi as reported here.

A close look at the reports from the Anglican Diocese of Jos website shows the mayhem that has been meted on Christians by irate Muslims who want to Islamize them by all means. What disturbs my heart is not just that our brethren are being killed and displaced, but I do not seem to see a mobilization and concerted efforts from the ‘free’ churches to reach out to these Christians who are passing through difficult times. It seems as if Christian leaders behave like every other political leader who will just come out after every incident and condemn the ‘murderous attack’ and then ‘to your tents O, Israel’, we all go back to business as usual. We criticize efforts that are solely denominational both in nature and commitment, that is, efforts that concentrate only within the denominational boundaries, but even that is rare these days. Our self-centeredness is very obvious and manifest in our indifference and inaction.

Currently, floods are ravaging several parts of the country. Homes and properties are destroyed; people are missing and being displaced; churches and mission fields are closed down. What are the ‘free’ churches doing? What has happened to our bowels of mercies? “How dwelleth the love of God in (us)”?

I was in a church today and the best that was done was to pray for those who were affected by the floods to take heart and be consoled by God. Meanwhile an emphasis was made on people paying endowment fund which nobody has been able to explain what the purpose is. What is the endowment fund for? Is it going to be used for investment? Will they draw money from it to build hospitals or for evangelism and missions? Is it to be used to build something befitting for the General Overseer or fund accumulated for him to have easy access for his travels and so on? The questions can go on and on. However, no matter how noble the idea may be, the issue is that the church is insensitive to the plight of those suffering the effects of the current disaster – floods. Some members around where I was seated murmured asking why they were talking about endowment fund while nothing was being done about those whose lives have been changed forever. Some are sleeping in open classrooms while others are under trees.

For most of the victims, life will never remain the same for good. It reminded me of a brother whose life was changed forever when one of the markets in the city of Port Harcourt got burnt down about ten years ago. His church where he was very committed in service could not help him to stand back on his feet because the pastor was afraid not to set‘precedence’.

I believe that social work can be used as a means of evangelism. I believe that social concerns can be used by the church to show the world the heart of a loving God. I believe that social concerns can open up door ways for the salvation of souls. If these things are true, why is the church not taking this opportunity? There are many things churches can do:

1.      Set up a committee who will work out modalities on how your church can be involved

2.      Collect offerings like was done in 1 Cor.16:1-4; Acts 11:29-30 and send to the affected churches.

3.      Concerned families can come together and contribute clothes, medicines and food stuffs and send to the affected areas.

4.      Churches can send artisans to help in reconstructing some destroyed houses.

5.      You can persuade your organizations to do something as part of cooperate social responsibility.

There are so many things we can do if we have God’s kind of heart. When we see the sufferings of our fellow men and look the other way like the Priest and Levite in Luke 10, or remain indifferent as most of us are doing today, one can really ask, “What happened to our bowels of mercies?”

In case you are having problems who to contact, call 08033160938 (Bishop Angar Nyanabo whose whole Diocese is submerged and he is squatting somewhere in Yanagoa) or 08036705262 (Rev. Can. Somiari whose missionary churches are affected in Bayelsa) or any other church leader you may know. Just do something! God bless you!

Believed but too late!

Believed but too late!

"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' "'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" Luke 16:27-31 NIV

That was a discussion between the rich man that dressed in purple and lived in luxury while he was alive and father Abraham. The man was speaking from hell while Abraham was answering him from the abode of the saints. You can read the whole story from Luke 16: 19-end.

Most likely, when the man was on earth, he had no time for spiritual things. He did not have time for God. He just carried on in life as if he would live forever here on earth. But life on earth is not permanent. We are all passers-by, strangers and sojourners who start the journey towards our death the first day we are born.

There are two major events in our lives that draw people around us, if we are privileged, without our awareness – our birth and our death. As many of us as are reading this piece right now are waiting for the next big event that will gather people around us, our death which we have no control over. For our entrance, our birth, we had no preparation for it but for our exit, our death, we have to prepare for it. When a man gets so distracted by the fashions of this world that he forgets that he is a pilgrim here and begins to live like a land owner, he is the most deceived and the most to be pitied. That was the kind of life the rich man in our passage lived.

One truth is clear from this story of Jesus: the soul of man does not die when the body dies. We continue to live even after we are buried here on earth. Whether we are rich or poor does not affect the fact that we will all be conscious after death. Notice that Lazarus’s burial or funeral was not mentioned but the rich man was buried. That is why it does not matter the “chariot of your departure”. It does not matter the way we die or whether a superb funeral is organized after we are gone. It does not matter how many priests and pastors that attend our burial. Notice also that the rich man was still full of his feelings. He was hurting, thirsty and tormented in the flames of hell. Death is not total extermination of our conscious being.

A few questions keep coming to my mind, how is it that someone who is a child of Abraham can go to hell? How is it that even in hell, he was still calling Abraham, “father Abraham” and neither Abraham nor God could rebuke him for doing so? It means that he was not lying. But why is it that he is spending his eternity in hell, lost forever? He wasted his opportunities and the privileges he had. He lived as a child of Abraham by birth and association but did not serve the God of Abraham. Hence even by his addressing Abraham as ‘father’ did not bring him out of hell. For generations to come, he will remain in hell forever in regret for missing the salvation of God.

This picture tells me that there are many in hell today who will be calling on God to save them. There are many in hell today who will be receiving Jesus as their Lord and Savior numerous times. It tells me that there are many people in hell today who are crying and praying prayer of repentance. The issue is that nobody will stop them from praying but surely no such prayers will be answered.

It’s amazing to see this man that could not give Lazarus little crumbs from his sumptuous table asking for a drop of water. He remembered all the messages preached to him by teachers of the Law and suddenly developed a heart of compassion for his equally lost brothers. He became an intercessor immediately and was asking that a preacher be sent from the dead to warn his brothers. "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' … 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" Luke 16:29-31 NIV. It means that if they do not listen to the Gospel that is preached all around them, they will not listen even if something spectacular happens, like the dead coming back to life to preach.

One life to live! We have the opportunity to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and serve Him. The time to make decision for eternity is in this life and not hereafter. There is no purgatory or a go-between life and your eternal destination. It is possible that there are some in hell right now who are praying for you not to come there, probably thinking that if you go to heaven, you will help out. Many will believe in Jesus only when they have entered hell but they will have believed too late. Please as we come close to the end of this Year, make sure you take the right decision. Do not join the statistics. Do not waste your opportunities and privileges. God bless!